Address Of P.G.M. Bro. Hon, Richard Vaux, At Centennial Of American Union Lodge.

Paul . These ancient , oriental , eastern my ths , contained the truth of a resurrection and immortality . The Pharisees accep ted the traditions or oral teachings , as part of the tenets of their school or sect . These mythologies then become of

importance as the primary source of St . Paul ' s wisdom . We are aware that the profoundest esoteric doctrines of the ancients were denominated wisdom , and afterward philohy and also gnosis or knowledge .

sop , These profoundest doctrines were taught in the mythologies or mysteries . In Persia , Kgypt , Greece and Rome they were known . For 500 years before Christ thess mythologies were said to have been in existence in Egypt . They were secretly

imparted to initiates , and were divided into degrees . They were of course orally taught , and preparation for initiation and advancement in the acquirement of light or wisdom , marked their rituals . To disclose the secret of these mysteries was

punished with death . The mythologies of Mithras in Persia , Osiris in Egypt , Eleuses in Greece , Bacchus in Rome , were almost identical in their character , and the truth each embodied and

communicated was the resurrection from the dead , and an immortal life . The allegory or symbolism of Proserpine , Ceres , Bacchus and Isis , indicate this beyond a reasonable doubt . Therefore these secret mysteries and their oral teachingsand their

sym-, bology , confined as they were to a select few of prepared initiates only , give , to the utterance of St . Paul the highest importance .

St . Paul was doubtless an initiate in these mysteries , else it seems difficult to account for his special and enigmatical reference to them . That he had , as a Pharisee , faith in oral teachings is proved by his speech before the council , by his "

acknowled gment that for his belief in a resurrection as a Pharisee , he was called m question . But when as a Christian teacher he cites these mysteries , it is either because his knowledge found in them the nest illustration of his thought that

, or the great truth he desires to impress on his hearers was the truth these mytholo gies embodied for the instruction of the world . Either view is predicated of St . haul ' s initiation . For evidence of this

listen to his own words . In his letter to the Romans he says : * ' According to the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret since the world began . " To the Corinthians he writes : " But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery , even the

hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our glory . " "Behold I show you a mystery . And though I have the gift of prophecy and understanding all mysteries and all knowledge . " To the Ephesians he declares : " Having made

known unto us the mystery of His will , as I wrote before in a few words , now that by revelation He made known to me the mystery , whereby when ye read ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery . " * * * " And make all

men see what is the fellowship of the mystery which from the beginning of the world bad been hid in God . " , To the Collossians : " Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations . "

Surely these words establish a most strong presumption that St . Paul was an initiate , that he fully understood these secret mysteries , the ancient mythologies , " hid from ages and from generations , " embodied the truth of a resurrection of the

dead and immortality for which he was " called in question , " when teaching as a Pharisee , and which had been confirmed as revealed to him by Divine supernatural interposition when he taught as a Christian . It was from these mythologies St . Paul first learned the truth they held in their

secrets , of a resurrection from the dead , which was a preparatory preparation for the highest degree of wisdom , eternal life . It should be remarked that the Greek word " mystery , " as usual in St . Paul ' s letters , is interpreted to be , initiated into

mysteries . When therefore St . Paul was called to teach the Gentiles in Corinth , this great truth which had travelled with time , " from the ages and from the generations , " he found that by symbolism only , he could

make it comprehensible to the ordinary mind . Symbolism and allegory were used in the teachings of the initiates in the mysteries , and St . Paul adopted this method of exoteric instruction . It is a most remarkable fact that in writing to o the Corinthians on the doctrine of the